Japanese Photographers Visit Our Professional Photography Studio After WPPI

After our own whirlwind spin through Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI), a senior pictures convention last week, a contingent of 17 professional photographers from Japan visited the portrait studio after their WPPI trip to see a professional studio’s senior pictures before headeing home.

Most of their photography is outdoors, they don’t practice the art of studio portraiture as much as they would like. I suspect because they are tired of the same old backgrounds. You know, the painted fabric backdrops photographers have used since 1863 when Matthew Brady made portraits during the Civil War.

Fortunately, this professional studio creating senior pictures has moved away from using painted canvas or fabric in favor of our Virtual Background System. It allows us to have thousands of backgrounds at our fingertips and to be able to change the background as quickly as you read this sentence, from arches, to pillars, to trees, to Las Vegas, we have the background.

This contingent of Japanese photographers was curious about the system. I was able to show them how we use it in different situations, for different clientele. They observed the system in a tradeshow booth in Las Vegas, and in operation in our professional studio.

‘It allows us to have thousands of backgrounds at our fingertips and to be able to change the background as quickly as you read this sentence, from arches, to pillars, to trees, to Las Vegas, we have the background.’

It’s always fun to have a professional photographer stand behind the camera, and flip the switch, projecting an image as a background. You can hear the Oos, and Ahhs, when they see an American flag or a hallway with arches as part of the image.

Of course that’s the beauty of the system, choosing a background that matches the individual, like we do for a senior picture. Whether it be a high school senior, athlete, Eagle Scout, the Girl Scout Gold Awardee, college or university graduate or a Jurist Doctor Candidate, we have the background to fit their rite-of-passage and their personality. We can even mimic painted canvas or fabric (as many times my customers prefer!)

Their journey was designed to improve their photography in an economy that’s been sluggish for 20 years. They are very excited about the new president of Japan, Abe, and his ‘Abenomics’ efforts to stimulate their economy. In fact the leader of this group said that their wedding photography wasn’t as great as American wedding photography. I had the chance to view one of the visiting photographers work, and I thought it was quite nice, in fact beautiful work.

There was a lot of picture taking, handing out cards and even some bowing (I was not very good at this part of the communication.) And of course they invited me to visit if I ever found my way to Japan. I’d love to take a Pacific Rim journey, perhaps one day we’ll meet again.